Seeing Bobby Kennedy in Barack Obama
Forty years after RFK's assassination, Barack picks up where Bobby left off.
As he lay dying on the floor of the Ambassador Hotel kitchen pantry, his head was cradled by a Mexican American busboy. The previous day the same busboy, Juan Romero, had delivered room service to Kennedy. "He shook my hand as hard as anyone had ever shaken it," Romero later said. "I walked out of there 20 feet tall, thinking, 'I'm not just a busboy, I'm a human being.' He made me feel that way."
People like to talk about populism and change, but in the world of gritty American politics, where parties are locked in a petty and intractable clench, change seldom takes place. The people around Kennedy felt he was on the leading edge to a new world. Yet the actual policy changes Bobby Kennedy proposed were modest—for the most part, slightly better versions of the kinds of plans for jobs, health care, or environmental protection that Democrats are still floating today. His approach, however, was something else. When doctors asked Kennedy who was going to pay for improved medical care, he replied, "You will." He told corporate executives they had a moral responsibility to the citizenry. He insisted leaders take responsibility for their actions. George W. Bush is not his type of guy.
In a speech given a few days after the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., and two months before his own, Kennedy said:
We know what we must do. It is to achieve true justice among our fellow citizens. The question is not what programs we should seek to enact. The question is whether we can find in our own midst and in our own hearts that leadership of humane purpose that will recognize the terrible truths of our existence.
We must admit the vanity of our false distinctions among men and learn to find our own advancement in the search for the advancement of others. We must admit in ourselves that our own children's future cannot be built on the misfortunes of others. We must recognize that this short life can neither be ennobled or enriched by hatred or revenge.
Our lives on this planet are too short and the work to be done too great to let this spirit flourish any longer in our land. Of course we cannot vanquish it with a program, nor with a resolution.
But we can perhaps remember, if only for a time, that those who live with us are our brothers, that they share with us the same short moment of life; that they seek, as do we, nothing but the chance to live out their lives in purpose and in happiness, winning what satisfaction and fulfillment they can.
Surely, this bond of common faith, this bond of common goal, can begin to teach us something. Surely, we can learn, at least, to look at those around us as fellow men, and surely we can begin to work a little harder to bind up the wounds among us and to become in our own hearts brothers and countrymen once again.
Barack Obama's speechwriters must have studied this speech and others like it. Yet it means something—even if it does not mean everything we would wish—that words and sentiments like Bobby Kennedy's sound plausible coming from the lips of Obama, as they would from few other politicians I can think of.
Obama is no populist, either, in any meaningful sense of the word; his proposals for change are modest, and his movement about as thin as Bobby Kennedy's. He is a shrewd politician, appealing to the grassroots but also willing to deal with powerful corporate interests, just as Kennedy dealt with the machine politics of Mayor Daley and his ilk, knowing that he could not win without them. But Obama has something close to the same sense of public duty that Bobby Kennedy had. And somewhere inside his chest there seems to be a beating human heart, which is something we haven't had in the White House for a good long time.
Well nice to see someone has done their homework.
Yes! Thanks for the great link! The emperor has no cloths!
To paraphrase Lloyd Bentsen:
I knew Bobby Kennedy.
I worked for Bobby Kennedy.
Bobby Kennedy inspired me as no political figure has before or since. And Barack Obama is NO Bobby Kennedy.
Seriously, MoJo - you used to commit admirable acts of real journalism. What has happened to you??
How self-revealing. For the most part the writers here are either senile old liberals with long term memory loss or children too lazy to do their homework and eager to slop up whatever spoon fed pablum propaganda the Madison Avenue spin doctors spoon feed them. Forget about the Pledge of Allegiance, do these lapel pin patriots even have a clue what the 1st and 14th amendments say?
Barack a Bobby?! Please. Bobby was sexy and handsome. Barack looks like Irkle with a good tailor.
Awww, whatsa matter? Did Mommy take away your allowance for beating up little girls on the playground again?
Last comment was meant for "James"
The queers have essentially won the battle so why capitulate to the enemy now? If a politician is in bed with both Evangelicals and gays don’t you think someone is bound to get screwed. Who do you think that’s going to be? When a politician marches a crackpot preacher into the public square and promises, in the name of religion (yes, some here got it right) to deny equality, we can well guess who is about to get screwed. To paraphrase Deiderot “man will never be free until the last politician is strangled with the entrails of the last preacher.’
Half voter or half wit whatever it is. Off to bed with you little one.
Sorry, I don't recall Robert Kennedy being a repository of hope. Granted I was only 19 when he died, but he wasn't razzle-dazzle to me, inspiring me to bigger and better things in America. He was simply another person running for President. Same with Obama.
It would be easy to make too much of the similarities between R.F.K and Obama? Really. Like what? You mean like both being entirely disingenuous about their advantages?
Let me see now, a rich patrician politician shakes a lowly bus boys hand and speeches written by a team of speech writers (a.k.a. ad men) tell us how much heart a politician has. I think that call this ‘authenticity’? And while Mr. "Humble beginnings" (gimmie a break!) Obama was enjoying the privileges of tony prep-schools and the finest private universities affirmative action could offer, gay men and lesbian women were spilling their warm blood on the cold streets of Alabama, Chicago, etc., so that he and his parents could enjoy their civil rights unmolested. But now that he has his rights he tells us America is "not ready" for this much equality. Nothing personal. Some of his best friends are gay, no, really.
Front of the bus or back. Marriage or civil unions. Why dicker? Words don’t matter? Obama tells us this is mere “semantics.” As the Supreme Court said when it laid down the invidious doctrine of ‘separate but equal’ in the infamous case of Plessy v. Ferguson “one side of the street is as good as the other.” Nothing personal. It's religion you see. And that was the exact same rationale used to convict Obama’s parents as felons in over half the states the day they were married.
Robert Kennedy’s disingenuous compassion for the poor was a Madison Avenue fairy tail. A photo op in a Tobacco Road shack and then back to the safe harbor of the family compound. When you have money you can buy almost any image you want. And Barack Obama is an untested politician who has done virtually nothing but campaign for president, make fancy speeches (written of course by others) and purportedly write books. His support clearly demonstrates that consent can be manufactured. Enough money? No problem.
Now witness the gullible, the bamboozled, the hoodwinked, and the naive swallowing this a public relations snow job like Jonestown Kool-Aid! P. T. Barnum was right, "There's a sucker born every minute." If it this easy to pull the wool over The People's eyes then Winston Churchill was right when he cynically quipped that "the best argument against Democracy is a ten minute conversation with the average voter."
Except for trite Hallmark sentiment this writer has nothing to say and wastes too much time saying it. No wonder he was ‘laid off’ at the Village Voice.
How is it that even a journal like Mother Jones attracts so much apoplectic fury - that casts so much heat, so little light? What sort of an argument is it that puts invective and personal abuse above reason?
Does my mystification arise from the fact that I don't live in the USA?
No seriouslymystified. It’s just because it’s not your ox that’s being gored in the name of Religion and by a Liberalism. Our First Amendment revere the marketplace of free ideas that is robust and wide open and it respects the right of any nincompoop to stand on a street corner and heap invective on all in public office.
And when harm is done to others and their ‘fundamental’ rights denied as an exercise in virtue then one can well expect the invective to fly. Politics in America is a blood sport and if your ox was being gored I suspect (I’d hope) you’d defend your rights with zealous advocacy. Deny a persons equal legal dignity in the name of religion (as Obama clearly and un-apologetically does) and THAT is a deeply “personal abuse” for which opprobrium is an entirely appropriate defense as well a deserving response.
I've been doing a lot of reading about Bobby Kennedy lately. There's an excerpt from a new book in the June 2008 issue of Vanity Fair. I would suggest you read that and then see if you still feel the same way about RFK not being "a repository of hope."
A little more on topic, I can definitely see RFK in Barack Obama. I can also see JFK, that same sort of inspirational call to believe our nation can be better through whatever efforts we can put forth. I think that's why Ted Kennedy endorsed Obama.
Dear "The Voice of Youth"...: Okay, time for 'you' to take a deep breath. Barney that you watched growing up, singing "I love you and you love me..." that was just a TV program. Politics is about power and greed. No one involved, loves anything but the power and greed. Got that part? Okay, let's go on to another important point. Neither Obama, Hillary, McCain, Jesus, The Buddha, Gandhi...the list could go on for miles...has the answer for America so far as 'fixing things'. The answer for America's 'fix' lies in the heart of each and every American, not in another flawed politician. But, thank you for becoming involved, for caring about this country. We will move this country forward only to the extend that we are able to find people to serve who themselves have moved into more enlightened thinking. Sorry to tell you, but for all his eloquent speeches, Obama is not an enlightened leader. He has far too much of his energy invested in anger. He likes and associates with angry people, i.e. his church and his wife. Anger, fear, hate, war, violence...all found in lower level thinking. We have just lived through almost 8 years of fear based uninspired leadership and now Obama wants to bring his angry and uninspiring leadership. Obama has never gotten past his anger, no reason to believe he will be any better as a president.
The hope that JFK ignited in our hearts died as each of the three greatest American Leaders was assassinated one at a time. On the day that a bus boy nestled the bloodied head of RFK in his lap, the decade of hope passed. Killed by an assassins bullet.
Barak Obama has rekindled that hope. We all hope for a better world, a better country, a better community, a better life for our children. Maybe, it still can become a reality. Maybe Obama is the man that will show us the way. All hail the new decade of hope.
I'm curious. Just what does he really stand for? Please indicate how his voting record (particularly prior to his candidacy) supports your assertions.
to steven, are you aware jfk. was president during the viet nam war, lbj was his vice president. you don;t know your history at all , lbj inherited the war from jfk.also bamma won the presidency because axelrod was bammas carl rove.
Well, Sharon I half agree with you. But I think (hope) Obama will be a better president than Bush. You are right about Obama’s lack of enlightenment. He made his deal with the devil (in this case the black church and a crackpot preacher), the devil paid his dues, and now that Obama got the benefit of the bargain he wants out of the deal. To whoever provided the link to the brief essay on Barack Obama’s mumbo jumbo, thanks. Very helpful.
In this vapid essay James Ridgeway talks about Chicago politics and Saul Alinsky who is Obama’s hero and organizational role model. Mr. Ridgeway might take the advice of one of the Biblical prophets who said, “it is best to remain silent and be thought a fool than to open one’s mouth and remove all doubt.” In other words it’s best to not speak on matters of which one knows nothing.
Hillary Clinton was wise enough to disassociate herself from Alinsky many years ago when her husband took office and she went to great lengths to suppress her 1969 honors thesis on Alinsky and make it unavailable to the public. Though all such theses are freely available to scholars Hillary's alma mater, Wellsley College, was persuaded to enact a special rule to hide the document lest it be used as a "Swift Boat" attack against her. It is therefore rather ironic that Obama should boast of a role model that wiser politicians thought prudent to disassociate themselves from long ago. While Alinsky was actually Clinton's mentor (Obama never met him) she was wise enough to dissociate herself from so controversial a character who openly admitted to both Socialist, a Marxist and a Communist with mob affiliations! Great role model senator.
Obama resembles Alinsky by his ruthlessness pandering to whatever faction, no matter how sordid, could serve his agenda: namely to "rub to raw the sores of discontent" (as Alinsky said) in order to acquire power and this the very reason Hillary Clinton was wise enough to disassociate herself from Alinsky long ago. Alinsky often boasted of being "an honorary member of the mob," of being the "buddy" of Big Ed Stash who was a professional assassin and Al Capone's top executioner, and that he was taken under the wing of Frank Nitti known as Capone's Enforcer and "number two man" in actual defacto control of the mob after Capone's income-tax rap. Indeed, Alinsky called this nefarious character "Professor" and became his "student." Nitti's boys took Alinsky everywhere and showed him all the mob's operations. No wonder Hillary Clinton thought it wise to disassociate herself from Alinsky even though she respected his organizational abilities. This is the man who Obama claims to be his "best disciple" and role model. How telling! How chilling! Mr. Ridgeway, did the dog eat your homework?
No one can think that Barack Obama (who was raised in a purely secular household) suddenly 'found Jesus' and became a Christian because of some religious epiphany on the road to power. As Obama himself revealed in Dreams from My Father, during his organizing of the black churches on Chicago's South Side it became conspicuous that he didn't attend services and he was told that, if he wanted black Christians to have any faith in him, it would help his political mission if he had a church and it didn't matter where. Apparently Obama became a "Christian" purely for political purposes. A matter of pure pragmatism. So Obama hooked up with a crackpot preacher leader of faction of black Christian separatists. Very interesting. James Ridgeway, do your homework.
Ironically Barack Obama is the kind of politician that Saul Alinsky ridiculed as a “Mr. But.” E.g. ‘No one should be discriminated against BUT marriage had religious connotations and is between a man and a woman.’
In "Reveille for Radicals" Alinsky asks all the "Mr. Butts" like Obama, "IS THE CHURCH SO VERY IMPORTANT IN YOUR LIFE BECAUSE IT REPRESENTS A SPIRITUAL SANCTUARY OR BECAUSE IT'S A POLITICAL POWER FOR JOBS AND MATERIAL SUCCESS?"
I think Obama has demonstrated the answer to that question quite well for he does not hesitate to ostentatiously flaunt his religion for the purpose gaining power and denying civil rights. Alinsky would say to Obama, "You really don't like [gays'], you just tolerate them. You are a very tolerant, Mr. Butt." Instead of being lapdogs some so-called ‘journalists’ should go some homework.
Inclusiveness? Though American born I am a Buddhist and like those of several other religions we do not believe in any god. Surprise, surprise, there are millions of us born in America. Like Clarence Darrow “I don't believe in God, because I don't believe in Mother Goose.” So when we hear Barack Obama stand up and thank god, and shout god bless you, god bless American. God, god, god, god, god, our skin crawls.
"Whenever we read the obscene stories, the voluptuous debaucheries, the cruel and tortuous executions, the unrelenting vindictiveness with which more than half the Bible is filled, it would be more consistent that we call it the word of a demon than the word of God. It is a history of wickedness that has served to corrupt and brutalize [hu]mankind." (Thomas Paine, Age of Reason.)
"During almost fifteen centuries has the legal establishment of Christianity been on trial. What has been its fruits? More or less, in all places, pride and indolence in the clergy; ignorance and servility in the laity; in both, superstition, bigotry and persecution." (James Madison, Memorial & Remonstrance)
"Millions of innocent men, women, and children, since the introduction of Christianity, have been burnt, tortured, fined, imprisoned; yet we have not advanced one inch towards uniformity. What has been the effect of coercion? To make one half the world fools, and the other half hypocrites. To support roguery and error all over the earth." (Thomas Jefferson)
Steven Weinberg (Nobel Prize in physics) once said “Religion is an insult to human dignity. With or without it you would have good people doing good things and evil people doing evil things. But for good people to do evil things, that takes religion.” As some here have astutely noted, Barack Obama is the only candidate who uses religion as his rationale to deny civil, secular, equality and a ‘fundamental’ civil right. As Bertrand Russell said, “the Christian religion has been and still is the principal enemy of moral progress in the world.”
Anyone not totally asleep realizes that this planet will have a nuclear theocracy within the next few years. Since Jesus said, “Think not that I am come to send peace on earth; I came not to send peace, but a sword” (Matthew 10:34) we should all worry when Barack Obama praises god, god, god, god. “I'm offended by the kind of smarmy religiosity that's all around us, .... you know after a while you get tired of hearing clergymen giving the invocation at various public /celebrations and you feel, haven't we outgrown all this? Do we have to listen to this?” (Steven Weinberg)
There is a reason why Evangelicals despise McCain but love Obama and when Barack Obama flaunts his appalling religiosity in the public square, if we have but one prayer let it be, “Mr. Jefferson! Build up this wall!
for a more insightful comparison, see John Pilger in NEWSTATESMAN.
Gee, I guess that after GM, Ralph Nader and Corvair, it’s been downhill for James Ridgeway. Need we wonder why he was “laid off” at the Village Voice? Too bad Mother Jones has become a dead-end street for vapid propagandists in journalist drag. But in spite of pandering lap dogs it’s heartening to see a few watch dogs here who bark against stupidity and hypocrisy. Mother Jones, fire the lap dogs and hire some of these iconoclastic commentators who have so eloquently debunked your vapid, brain-dead, propaganda.
Ridgeway and Obama both demonstrate George Orwell’s comment, in “Politics and the English Language,” that "Political language ... is designed to make lies sound truthful and ... to give an appearance of solidity to pure wind." And Mother Jones demonstrates that Political Correctness is a doctrine fostered by a delusional, illogical, liberal minority, which holds forth the proposition that it is entirely possible to pick up a turd by the clean end.
Rex Clark: I presume you mean the John Pilger who wrote that "Barack Obama is a glossy Uncle Tom who would bomb Pakistan" and referred to this campaign as a “ritual danse macabre of flags, balloons and bull[deleted], designed to camouflage a venal system based on money power, human division and a culture of permanent war."
Pilger? Noam Chomsky has claimed that the reason why journalists have invented the terms 'to pilger' and 'pilgerise' is because, when faced with the uncomfortable facts about the consequences of U.S foreign policy that Pilger presents, "ridicule [is] the only response they are capable of." Well I guess some writers here have neatly pilgerised Obama. But Pilger is supporter of Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez so, while his style is refreshing his credibility is wanting.
The NYC watershed has been under constant threat. It has been a magnificent source of unfiltered water. However, delopment has now been the cause of a very expensive filtration plant for the Croton reservoir, east of the Hudson. And if present plans for development west of the Hudson becomes reality, another filtration plant will soon be required. This is, no doubt, the story of development throughout our history.
Has Mother Jones ever dealt with this
issue?
John M., we agree on things but from very different perspectives. Spiritually speaking, that is what Jesus meant concerning a sword. It cuts clean and definitely separates one thing from the other, because you obviously refuse to take not of his more obvious statement "my kingdom is not of this world." So what threatens you so much, John? The fact He may be God in physical presence? Anyway back to topic. What bothers me is the blind hope voters have for Barack Obama, his connections with wealthy Muslim fundraisers, his connection to a church that put its blackness before its faith: "unashamedly black, unapologetically Christian". If there was a sort of framework for a false messiah, Mr. Obama seems to be paving the way. Of course, the problem is that what is good is often emulated by evil. So, he could be either. However, something doesn't rest right in my soul concerning Mr. Obama. Surely, this isn't considered sound or reasonable, but just the mere matter of induced labor abortions and his choice to vote absent instead of stand against this. How could a faithful Christian let a viable human being die without love or a chance? It isn't just this. His statements about why Pennsylvanians vote the way they do denied tradition, spirituality (the very thing he espouses) and he said this in front of potential wealthy donors in the mansion of a wealthy Muslim man. Hmmm. If the context said nothing of his intentions, the setting and location did. He's brilliant, and so is his wife. And there is something else, manipulation or perhaps just disillusion with the current system. It would be hard to play the system's game while yearning to change it. When you walk the fence, you usually end up falling on one side or the other...or splitting the difference painfully.
Mr. Obama may talk hope. Some of his ideas are not revolutionary. If you want revolution, look to Bob Barr, Ralph Nader, Dennis Kucinich, Wesley Clark, and probably countless others who haven't been able to break into this Republican/Democrat corporate media circus.
Until Christ returns, we have to make the most of things, and things are just going to get worse worldwide before that happens. Worse...seemingly solved...then apocalyptic. *shrug* We shall see. I'm still considering what I need to do to make myself more marketable to Canada and other nations (as far as education and work experience).
James: yup; that the man. i am sorry to hear you feel that way. he has always spoken quite highly of you.
Why do you ovelay your articles with that stupid advertizing. Do you actually expect anyone read such a posting?
Why do you overlay your articles with that stupid advertizing. Do you actually expect anyone read such a posting?
This is a total crock. He started with the premise that Americans are bitter and confused and looking for someone to inspire them. NOT. Obama is one big nothing. Just like the writer.
Genevieve writes like a Bush/Reagan think-tank adviser. What a load of right-wing bollocks! The American system has failed miserably (despite the propaganda by the ruling elite) because of its dependence on the US predatory Corporate Capitalism model (one which they have been trying to force on the rest of the world for decades)- 47 million working people without health care, third world stats for infant mortality and other stats which come in low for the developed world, one of the world's largest producers of weapons of mass destruction and death, one of the longest work-weeks and shortest vacation times in the western world, rising poverty, one of the highest crime and violence rates in the world, and etc, etc, etc. And her naive statement about whether "freedom of the press" would survive under Obama is laughable! If you paid any attention you'd know that Reporters Without Borders ranks the US at 52d in the world in freedom of the press - and a large part of that low ranking is because of the failure of the 4th estate to uphold the charge they have been given to protect the people from the lies and corruption of those who govern us (& run the corporate economy) because the press in the US is owned and controlled by the conservative corporations. (They're not going to tell the US public, for instance, about the pres. of Pepsi asking Nixon to get rid of Allende in Chile or United Fruit in Guatemala asking Eisenhower to get rid of their democratically elected president in CIA sponsored "revolts" & assassinations). No wonder the average US citizen is so brainwashed into believing in the Corporate Capitalist Fairy Tale of business saving us from all manner of evil (especially like foreign governments and leaders who don't want the US corporations to rape, plunder and pillage their resources and economies). If the people are told something long enough most of them will believe it after all, even if they are unhappy and have such pathetic lives of desperation trying to get that just one more TV or car that will buy them happiness and hating everyone else in the country who doesn't look just like them. Too bad the US has such power in the world, but then with scores of military bases all over the planet to promote and secure the neo-colonialism and the Wilsonian Idealism, and an obscene military budget (I won't dignify that with the word "defense") that has been the guiding light for every administration for many decades it is no wonder. And as a majority of people in the world who were polled recently were asked who/what was the greatest threat to world peace and progress the US of A won hands down. Maybe it's time, since the US wants to run the world, that people all over the planet should have the right to vote for president. I can guarantee you we wouldn't have had Bush I or II or a lot of the other corporate puppets we've been stuck with. I thank God every day my partner & I have moved to a much more progressive and tolerant country where every one has health care and our tax dollars truly do go to "defense" and infrastructure and human need, & not into making the world safe for Haliburton, Coca Cola, Boeing etc. Oh, and yes, we have a Socialist president and parliament where human and civil rights take center stage (and we even have the right to visit any country we want to without fear of imprisonment - you can't say the same in the US. Just try going to Cuba for a beach vacation!)
The US was settled by Puritan-Capitalist (neo-fuedalists) who believed that if you were rich it was because God loved you and if you were poor it proved the reverse. The US is still a puritanical country and the GOP, especially, still believes in this backward, feudalistic, and fundamentalistic notion. You see it in every debate and in every American jingoism. It's time to grow up and quit giving in to the corporate propaganda and fear which keeps us all in line and voting conservative (even Democrats would be conservatives in most EU countries and some others). McBush will give us four more unaffordable years that the US just may not be able to recover from, so Obama is the only credible choice. He does spark hope in a naive and unenlightened electorate, but his statement that he wants to increase the military is one of the most frightening I've heard in a long time. Who's going to pay for it? And why? If the US would quit meddling in every other countries business (look up Gladio, for example, and see what your country has been doing to undermine progressive governments in our ally Europe for decades) there wouldn't be so many "terrorists" created every day. But the other option - McBush - is even more scarey! McCain, like W, didn't even know the difference between a Sunni and a Shia Muslim - how can he possibly be president and leader of the the world's ruling country? Another rich, ignorant cowboy. Look at the horrible danger and mess created by the other ignoramus that precedes him.
Yeah...Christ will save the day...when he comes back.
Barack is JFK, MLK, RFK all rolled into one. Did you ever see the picture of them sitting at a table in the oval office? I want to find that picture.
Oh, before I go. Thanks to those of you who get it. Where do all these racists come from anyway? WTF!!!! Oh bored conservative white folk on their computer. I don't have time to read any more of these small minded, deluded hateful, fearmongering comments. We will all see what happens in the next 4 years, because OBAMA will be our next president. Praise the...who again???
HORSE FEATHERS! Just another little rich boy, with a major guilt complex.
I respectfully disagree with your comments about Barack as 'cool and aloof'...I saw him twice while he was in Indiana and he is very personable, down to earth, warm and friendly with a natural ability to relate to any person on any level...the man is 'real' and authentic and I do believe he is someone who can lead our country out of this quagmire of war and fear created by Bush/ Cheny, Inc!
Oh, wow! For a Mother Jones article this one was TOTALLY IRRESPONSIBLE!
ALL you've done by publishing such a poorly researched piece of rabble rousing is suggest to the White supremecists who might not have actually had the idea yet themselves that they need to take care of the "Obama problem" the same way their predecessors took care of the RFK problem.
Ouij..you may have your facts on who killed Robert Kennedy just a little skewed if you think the White Supremacist were involved. Sirhan Sirhan was an Arab who was very disturbed because Robert Kennedy was too pro-Israel, in his opinion, and Sirhan Sirhan hated Israel. The White Supremacists would probably have any black in their scope who ran for president, and no one would have to give them any ideas. Obama's life is probably most threaten by the ilk of the Reverend Wrights of the U.S. as he used the Black Liberation backing to get him to where he is and then threw them under that very crowded bus.
Talk about Delusional here! Robert Kennedy was inspirational to many because of his empathy and almost paranormal abiltiy to immerse himself in the lives of the common person. Barack's real audacity is to endlessly use repetive hyperbole as an attempt to gain voters. Bobby Kennedy was MUCH smarter than that!
AND YOU THINK A HIGH-FIVE HANDSHAKE FROM B.O. ( I'LL GETCHA ON THE WAY OUT)CONNOTES GREATNESS? YA BETTER STUDY MORE HISTORY BOY!
Your second paragraph is one of the finest examples of political writing I've ever read. And your whole article captures the spirit and essence of my feelings for both men.
Darned right Obama is corrupt. Forty-nine of his immediate colleagues (and maybe more) have direct ties to G.W.Bush.
I bet ridgeways fat ass never leaves his chair in his office, Ive been reading mother jones for a long time now, and i've never seen such uninformed journalism in my life.
to cheril I think the word your looking for is ALLA.
was obamma born in kenna or was he born in jakarta where his sister was?
you shouldn't use wikipedia for your journalistic sources. That's just silly.
Uh, no.
I KNEW Bobby Kennedy, and Obama is NO Bobby Kennedy.
Not by a long shot.
"In God we Trust",a powerful phrase by which America stoodby and made her strong. Many will not agree but Barack "Hussein" Obama's troubled past and controversial associates will influence his policies/actions if he becomes the president. It will not be good for America-islamic influence & black liberal theology.
